Defined terms for the annuity market and lifetime income landscape.
A period certain annuity is an arrangement under which the insurer makes scheduled income payments for a contractually specified fixed period, with payments continuing for the full period regardless of whether the contract owner survives, and ceasing at the end of the period.
Point-to-point crediting is an indexed annuity calculation method that measures the change in an underlying index between two specific dates — typically the start and end of a crediting period — and uses that change as the basis for the credit applied to the contract.
A policy loan against an annuity contract is a loan from the carrier to the owner using the contract's cash value as collateral, with the loan balance reducing amounts available on withdrawal, surrender, or death, and with tax treatment differing materially from life insurance policy loans.
Portfolio withdrawal strategy is any structured approach to drawing income from an investment portfolio in retirement, specifying the withdrawal amount, adjustment rule over time, and asset allocation intended to sustain the withdrawals over the planning horizon.
A premium bonus is an amount credited by the carrier to a deferred annuity contract at issue or on additional premiums, expressed as a percentage of the premium and added to the accumulation value, funded through some combination of declared-rate adjustment, schedule extension, and embedded spread.
